Kaia Kater is just beginning to expand her jazz-fueled sound out west. But her deft song craft has already garnered her a Juno nomination and acclaim from the likes of NPR’s Tiny Desk, The Guardian, Rolling Stone and No Depression.
The Grenadian Canadian vocal artist is on the cusp of stellar career riding the Canadian music scene with an inventive yet completely natural mashup of folk, jazz, Americana and Appalachian banjo. She's also dipped her toes into composing for film.
The singer-songwriter released Strange Medicine, her fifth full-length album in 2024. She is currently hitting the road on a five-province tour, including Alberta. The Strange Medicine Tour includes a performance at St. Albert’s City Arts Space on Friday, Feb. 14.
The album explores struggles through times of darkness often using historical references as starting points. Throughout the album, Kater was releasing raw and powerful emotions about colonialism, sexism, racism and misogyny. Although she kept those emotions frozen for years, the process turned into a cathartic journey.
Written from her Montreal home, the themes are heavy, yet the arrangements are gentle and flowing, suggesting that even in life’s darkest moments, many emotions can exist simultaneously.
“People tell me the album doesn’t sound like anything they’ve ever heard. It’s an album with a legacy and people can see I’ve incorporated banjo into all different types of music. I love the album to stand as a testament to different genres of prescriptive ideas,” Kater said.
“I’ve taken different sounds and influences and put them together – Appalachian, Radio Head and classical like Holst’s The Planets. A lot of the music is repeated rhythmic patterns stacked one on top of the other.”
Through her refugee father, Kater has strong ties to Grenada’s island domain. And Strange Medicine honours her heritage through songs about characters that resisted the limits put in their path.
For instance, the Taj Mahal collaboration, Fédon, is a take on a Grenadian folk tale based on a true event. Fédon was a mixed-race revolutionary who went to war against the British plantation owners with 100 freed slaves in 1795.
“He ultimately failed, but he was resisting the circumstances he was put in. I was writing it during the pandemic, and I wanted to put a face on our demons,” said Kater.
Instead, The Witch, a collaboration with Aoife O’Donovan is inspired by the Salem witch trials and The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathanial Hawthorne. It takes place in Puritan New England where Hester Prynne, a young widow gives birth to a child and is forced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ signifying, she is an adulteress.
In the mysterious-sounding song, Kater turns the tables on those who condemn Hester while showing off her plucked banjo style.
“It’s like The Handmaiden’s Tale. Women are deemed so powerful, they need to be tempered.”
While the album highlights up to 25 musicians, Kater's City Arts Space performance will be leaner with drummer Robby Kuster, upright bass Andrew Ryan and electric guitarist Billie Zizi.
Kater also released a new single, Over Yonder in The Graveyard, by North Carolina banjoist and songwriter Ola Belle Reed. The song brings Reed's legacy of love, grief and loss into sharp focus.
“Growing up I knew few women who played banjo and wrote songs, and discovering Reed’s work was a portal into merging traditional music with new lyricism and fresh sounds. I reimagined the cover with live vocals, banjo, horns, reeds and electric guitar to create a hazy fever-dream feel.” said Kater.
Kater’s folk/Americana concert is Feb. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Albert’s City Arts Space. First-come, first-serve tickets are $35. Go online to tickets.stalbert.ca or call 780-459-1542.
